"A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust."~ Gertrude Jekyll
If the soil after plowing is at all stiff and lumpy you will have to do the extra work of harrowing, which means pulverizing (grind) into fine shape.
If, even after harrowing, the soil remains lumpy, roller should be used. The roller should be used also on very sandy and light soils, after the first harrowing (or after the plowing, if the land turns over mellow) to compact it.
Whatever implements are used, do not forget the great importance of making the soil thoroughly fine, not only at the surface, but as far as possible below. This treatment will reduce to a minimum the labor of finally preparing the seed-bed or plant-bed. After the finishing touches, the soil should be left so even and smooth that you can with difficulty bring yourself to step on it. Get it "like a table" -- and then you are ready to begin gardening.
Soil is capable of holding on to quite a bit of water, mostly by adhesion. For example, I'm sure that at one time or another you have picked up a wet stone from a river or by the sea. A thin film of water clings to its surface. This is adhesion. The more surface area there is, the greater the amount of moisture that can be held by adhesion. If we crushed that stone into dust, we would greatly increase the amount of water that could adhere to the original material. Clay particles, it should be noted, are so small that clay's ability to hold water is not as great as its mathematically computed surface area would indicate.
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